Nazi Nobleman: Difference between revisions

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Ah, yes, the Nazi Nobleman. This [[Aristocrats Are Evil|arrogant aristocrat]] has wholeheartedly and enthusiastically embraced the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi ideology]] of [[Might Makes Right|"might makes right"]] and [[Social Darwinist|"the strong should dominate the weak"]]. No doubt this is a result of his [[Blue Blood|superior breeding]] and privileged upbringing, during which he was raised to believe himself [[Nietzsche Wannabe|superior to all those lowly proles]].
 
Naturally, of course, this enthusiastic Nazi hates democracy, probably because it threatens the superiority of the noble class, and is almost certainly [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|wealthy]], and trusts the Nazis to help him keep his wealth. He is probably a good pal of [[Adolf Hitler|old Adolf himself]]. In some stories, he is a [[Morally -Ambiguous Doctorate|leading scientist]], or perhaps a [[Torture Technician|sadistic jailer]], but more often, he is a [[Cultured Warrior]], or some variant thereof. [[Good Looking Privates|His uniform will be immaculate, starched and pressed]], [[The Von Trope Family|his last name begins with "Von"]], and of course [[High-Class Glass|a monocle]] is mandatory.
 
The reality of this trope is far more complicated than the trope itself, and can be found on the [[Nazi Nobleman/Analysis|Analysis page]].
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== Anime & Manga ==
 
* Prince Gihren Zabi of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' is what happens when this trope meets [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name]]. He's a [[Social Darwinist]] who sees [[Adolf Hitler]] as someone to look up to, going so far as to take being compared to him as a complement ("I'll show you what a man who follows in Hitler's footsteps can accomplish). He's also [[The Evil Prince]] and a member of the ruling Zeon nobility.
 
== Comicbooks ==
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* Obliquely referenced in the [[Marx Brothers]] movie ''A Night In Casablanca''. The Nazi agent Heinrich Stubel goes by the assumed identity of "Count Pfferman"; while his noble title appears to be false, he nonetheless projects a vaguely aristocratic image, in keeping with this trope.
* 1945's ''Hotel Berlin'' features an apparent Nazi blueblood named "Von Stetten" who attempts to escape to South America and start a new Nazi regime there.
* The film ''[[Enemy Atat the Gates]]'' depicts a ruthless Bavarian aristocrat sniper by the name of Erwin König; in [[Real Life|real life]] it is not clear that König even actually existed, though the film is [[Very Loosely Based Onon a True Story|supposedly based on a true story]]. Supposedly.
** Though in König's case it wasn't so much Nazi ideology as it was his wish to avenge his son's death, his son having been killed in the earliest days of the battle.
** The Soviets [[Playing Withwith a Trope|invoke the trope]] because their guy is a poor peasant who learned shooting hunting goats for food. The German guy learnt sniping on his family estate. They turn the sniper duel into class warfare.
* This trope possibly appears in the 1943 war movie ''Bomber's Moon''; the villain of the piece is a Luftwaffe Major named Von Streicher -- given the name, very likely an aristocrat of some kind. While it can't be said for sure whether he is an actual Nazi ideologue or just an ordinary soldier, he displays the kind of ruthlessly amoral behavior one would expect of a Nazi, such as machine-gunning an unarmed man.
* ''The Master Race'', made in 1944, depicts unrepentant Nazi "Colonel Friedrich Von Beck" deviously fomenting hatred and dissent in a liberated Belgian town.
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* Averted in ''[[The Sound of Music]]''. Captain von Trapp hates and despises Nazis, tears up their flag contemptuously, destroys them with his [[Death Glare]] and escapes across the border.
** This could just as well fit in the [[Real Life]] section below, as the Captain really did exist; he was a well-known Austro-Hungarian war hero in World War I, commander of several U-boats (yes, Austria-Hungary did have a navy, based in the Adriatic) in which he executed several highly successful war patrols.
* Averted big-time in ''[[Valkyrie (Film)|Valkyrie]]'' (for [[Real Life|real-life]], see below) which depicts a Swabian Catholic Aristocrat and army officer who masterminds a plot to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]]. A huge portion of the other plotters depicted are also aristocrats, both Protestant and Catholic, and from a variety of different parts of Germany.
* Baron von Sepper ([[Richard Burton]]) in ''Bluebeard'' (1972).
* ''[[Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (Film)|Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid]]'' features as its main villain a "Field Marshall von Kluck" (Carl Reiner), whose surname, in combination with his starched-and-pressed uniform and neatly shined boots, suggest a probable aristocratic background. He is also an enthusiastic Nazi, referring to the heroine's family as members of an "inferior race", and trying to destroy the Third Reich's enemies long after the war has ended.
** It may be worth mentioning that von Kluck was an actual German general in [[World War I]], whose inability to coordinate with von Bülow's signaled the failure of the Schlieffen Plan and led to the extended trench warfare of that conflict.
* ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' invokes this trope in typical B movie style (which is to say, reversed) where referring to Dr. Scott as Dr. Von Scott is enough to establish him as a Nazi (even though this is never actually said).
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* The short story ''Poison Victory'' uses a Nazi Nobleman, and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the inaccuracy by having one character remark "Another Nazi nobleman... And to think how Hitler hated the aristocracy!"
* Norman Katov's novel ''The Judas Kiss'' depicts an Austrian Nazi Baron who collaborates with [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] in [[Torture Technician|torturing prisoners]].
* [[PGP. G. Wodehouse (Creator)|PG Wodehouse]] included a British variant in his ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (Literaturenovel)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' stories. Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, is the founder of a Fascist organisation informally known as the "[[Black Shirt|Blackshorts]]" (so named because "by the time [he] founded his organisation, there were no shirts [as in shirt colours] left"). Fortunately, Wodehouse knew enough to depict Spode correctly as an ''exception'' to the general rule -- most of the other [[Blue Blood|upper-class]] characters think he is bonkers.
** It should be pointed out that Spode abandons his attempts to become a dictator precisely when he succeeds to the title. Moreover, when "Joy in the Morning" was written, Wodehouse probably had not yet invented a title for Spode to inherit.
* Several members of the Vanger family in ''[[The Millennium Trilogy]]'' were enthusiastic supporters of Nazi ideology.
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* The aforementioned "Baroness von Gunther", from the ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' franchise, made an appearance on the 1970s TV show.
* Colonel Klink from ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' was depicted as a man of Prussian aristocratic descent, though his apparent lack of enthusiasm for Nazi ideology may exempt him from this trope.
* ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'': Lord Sidcup, mentioned in "Literature" section above, made an appearance on several episodes.
* Averted in ''[['Allo 'Allo (TV)!|Allo Allo]]'', where the aristocratic General von Klinkerhoffen may serve under [[Nazi Germany]] but still openly celebrates the Kaiser's birthday and makes the other German officers wear Pickelhauben to do it.
 
 
== Music ==
* While not ''exactly'' a Nazi, [[David Bowie]] described his "Thin White Duke" persona (which was during his transition from "plastic [[Soul (Music)|Soul]]" to [[New Wave (Music)|New Wave]] and/or [[Post Punk]]-ish Krautrock) as an "emotionless ''Aryan'' [[Ubermensch|superman]]," playing off this trope.
* In the 1940s Soviet wartime song ''Baron von der Pshick" by Leonid Utesov, the titular baron is the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of the Wehrmacht and gets his ass totally handed to him in Russia.
 
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* While he supported German nationalism and the Nazi goals of making Germany great again, Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, refused to meet with Hitler and condemned the Nazis near the end of his life. Several of his sons and other family members, however, did join the Wehrmacht. His second wife [[Horrible Judge of Character|was also quite a fan]] of [[Adolf Hitler|that Austrian corporal]].
* German spy Princess Stephanie Julianne von Hohenlohe was close the Hitler and Göring. She was also Jewish.
* Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg did get a bit of a [[Historical Hero Upgrade]] in the 2008 film ''[[Valkyrie (Film)|Valkyrie]]'', but it is indisputably true that this Swabian Count was a mastermind behind one of the biggest plots to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]]. While he didn't exactly have [http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/GENOCIDE/reviewstr12.htm the highest opinion] of non-Germans, and endorsed some planks of the Nazi political platform, he also didn't just go along quietly after the Nazis crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]]. Many of the other real-life plotters were aristocrats of one stripe or another as well.
* The Duke of Windsor is only rumored to have been a Nazi sympathizer -- odds are more that he was more just stupid in accepting the attentions of anyone who would give his wife the recognition he thought she deserved - and Hitler was smart enough to realize this.
* The military proper (as opposed to the [[Praetorian Guard|SS]]) was more sympathetic to the old traditions and had a number of old-style nobility in it who were [[Just Following Orders]]. This was a great bother to [[Adolf Hitler]] who couldn't get along without them but absolutely hated officers; partly because he had once been an enlisted man, partly because they often had minds of their own within the confines of their profession, and partly because they deflected loyalty away from ''him''.